The Department of Energy needs enforceable deadlines and more requirements to hold it accountable for Hanford tank waste cleanup covered in the 2010 court-enforced consent decree, a federal judge has ruled. Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington has issued her second order since the state of Washington and DOE returned to court to amend requirements and deadlines in their consent decree. The new order has positives and negatives for each side. The judge sided with the state on the need for enforceable deadlines for meeting milestones in the cleanup process, rejecting DOE’s proposal that deadlines be set as technical issues are worked out and baselines instituted to ensure the deadlines had a reasonable chance of being met. “DOE’s assurances to this court that it will perform its obligations under the consent decree despite an absence of predetermined, enforceable deadlines lacks credibility,” she said in the order.
The judge will not require DOE to build four new double-shell tanks by 2022, as the state had requested, with more possible later. However, if DOE cannot meet certain requirements for retrieving waste from single-shell tanks containing radioactive waste or to reduce waste volumes sufficiently through operation of the 242-A Evaporator, DOE will be required to begin building one or more new tanks, she said. Peterson said she will consider the triggering milestones for new tanks after further briefing. She also will not require DOE to build two proposed pretreatment facilities to prepare tank waste to be fed directly to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility and High-Level Waste Facility. Those proposals stray from the intent of the consent decree, the judge ruled. The two parties will have 90 days to modify their proposed amendments to the consent decree and submit them to the court. They also have been given more time to propose experts for a panel the judge plans to name to advise her on technical matters.
